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How does students’ language development affect their learning?

 The first exposure students have to language, also known as their primary discourse, is the language they are most familiar with. This mode of discourse often clashes with the secondary discourse they are asked to participate in while in school. This discourse may be referred to as academic language; it is what is known as “standard” English. This is the standard language that has been agreed upon for formal and academic speech and writing. It is not common for students’ primary discourses to be standard English; most often students come from families whose language is heavily influenced by their culture or immediate environment. Also, some students’ primary discourse may not even be English as so many students are the children of immigrants. The modes of discourse in which we interact on a daily basis are examples of code switching. We are accustomed to assigning different discourses to different media such as verbal, written, electronic and for different audiences, such as family, friends, professionals or people held with respect and esteem.  In addition to switching between these modes of discourse, students must be mindful of using what is considered “standard” English in school. Their writing and verbal responses and expected to be written in this format. When students use another discourse when writing academically they are often judged by it. People make assumptions about an author’s credibility and level of intelligence based on the caliber of the writing the author produces.  In our class we discussed how writing that employs discourses other than the standard are not inferior writing. In fact, there are some writers who use only the vernacular or slang and are held in very high esteem. We also spoke about how humans assign meaning to words and that the words themselves do not have meaning self-evidently. Language was created in order to help people communicate with one another. And, just as Thomas and Tchudi wrote, “spoken language is the real language, and writing is merely a representation of it” (Thomas and Tchudi, 1999).  After meditating on the course readings I began to think more about the students I have worked with this semester and those I worked with as a tutor over the past five years. Many of my students have resisted any sort of reading because they found the language too challenging. I completely understand where they are coming from because there are texts that I am hesitant to pick up because I am intimidated by the language, such as //The Canterbury Tales//. I feel encouraged by teachers and friends and I try to encourage my students in the same way. They feel greatly disconnected from most literature. Some of them are even resistant to more accessible texts like //The Hunger Games// and the //Harry Potter// series. The language in these books has always been very accessible for me because my primary discourse is standard English, with very little variation. Whereas most of my students consider standard English to be a secondary discourse. In order for these students to be encouraged to read there needs to be scaffolding and modeling. I especially found modeling to be a very useful tool in the classroom. If students don’t already possess the skills they need to access certain readings those skill need to be taught or modeled. I sat with my students recently and modeled my thinking as I was reading the first chapter of //To Kill A Mockingbird// and stopped frequently to ask questions and make comments. They were assigned the first two chapters for homework in their other English class without any kind of introduction. They told me they hated it and didn’t understand anything. After class one of the students who was avidly against reading the book any further thanked me for taking the class to go through it together. She said I “made it fun”. In reality, all I had done was make the text a bit more relatable and not as intimidating. I share this story because it really reaffirmed the lessons I had been taught in the classroom. Students can access texts that are written in another discourse with a little aid and scaffolding. My main question is how do we as teachers take the time out of curriculum to painstakingly model and scaffold texts—it is extremely time consuming—when we know this is what is best for our students, even though it is not part of the required curriculum.